Italian pianist Stefano Bollani has been known to play everything from Pet Sounds to Prokofiev. As a kid he could keep up with Scott Joplin recordings sped up from 33 to 45 rpms, and even today the 35-year-old, classically trained, composer is nothing less than rousing (Check out Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on NPR.org).
Twelve years ago Bollani was touring with Italian pop star Jovanotti when he caught the ear of famed trumpet player Enrico Rava. The elder Italian helped him get centered back on jazz and the pair went on to record over a dozen albums together.
Bollani also leads a few groups of his own, and several of his projects have featured prominent New York artists. Tomorrow the pianist kicks off a four night run with Rava, drummer Paul Motian, and bassist Larry Grenadier at Birdland.
When you met Enrico Rava in 1996 you basically devoted yourself full time to jazz. How did it feel to come out of the classical and pop realms and focus purely on jazz? I always new I wanted to be a jazz musician, even if I was playing pop keyboards, because I started studying jazz when I was 11 and I was playing keyboards with pop singers just because it was a good experience, the atmosphere was ok. I was playing in front of 8,000 people, it was something special for a 20-year-old guy. But as soon as I got the chance to devote myself to jazz I jumped on it.
Tell me about meeting Enrico Rava. I was feeling so happy because Enrico was one of the first musicians I saw at a live concert. I was 12, and my father and I went to see him. I saw him so many times live, and when I got the opportunity to play with him it was one of the happiest moments of my life. As soon as we started there was no problem I understood what he wanted, he was listening to me all the time, and really trying to play together which was incredible because he was already a guy with great experience. I never felt there was a problem with the age. I always feel like jazz musicians are not interested in how old you are or where you are coming from, the main thing is to enjoy the other musicians.
After he saw you play in Italy, Rava invited you to join his trio (Michael Benita - bass, Aldo Romano - drums) at a concert in Paris. How did it go? The first night my solos were so short because I didn’t want to disturb the other musicians, who were masters of jazz. So Enrico came to me during the pause, and maybe that was the last time in my life I saw him a little angry with me, he said "why are you playing such short solos? Why aren’t you playing? We are in Paris, just play as you can." I told him "I am a little shy because you play so well and I don’t know if it fits. Then I started playing solos, from that moment on I started enjoying the band.
That’s the way Enrico did things. He’s always looking for young talent, he’s very well known as being a talent scout in Italy, trying to find new musicians. Not all musicians do that, they usually prefer to play with people the same age, with the same experience.
What are the most important aspects of music for you? The main thing especially in live shows is energy and enthusiasm. I’m really happy about playing music. The main thing, when you see a live show of my band, is energy. Of course records are different, because records stay forever. I believe that when people come out for a live show, they need first of all energy, they will not remember exactly which chords we played, which arrangement they listened to, which lyrics I sang, but they will remember if they got a good vibe from the band.
When I record of course I am looking for more formal perfection. Considering the duo, most of the music is improvised, so of course it’s not perfect and it’s not supposed to be perfect. It's coming from the heart, and from the moment.
What have been some of your most extraordinary experiences on stage? Recently I had a nice experience in Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro. We played inside the favela. It's a quarter which is a disaster, poor people every where, they never have concerts there, but they wanted to have a jazz concert in the favela. So they brought a grand piano into the favela, which is incredible to see. It's the poorest place on Earth, and you see a stage with a grand piano, and me playing my music in front of these people. It was amazing because I had the chance to take a tour into the favela with the people who live there. If I go there, I’m white, I’m European, I enter, I die in a few minutes, but I went there with them, and I think I'm one of the few people that could go inside the favela. The people were incredible, saying "here is a piano player from Italy!" They were very proud about that. "He came from italy to play for us, to see us.”
The afternoon with them was an amazing experience. I’ve been told this is the second time in Rio de Janeiro when they brought a grand piano inside the favela. The first time was for Antonio Carlos Jobim.
You first played in New York in 2000, at Town Hall. Tell me about that experience. It was an Umbria Jazz-organized event at Town Hall. There were lots of Italian jazz musicians, and Joe Lovano was there as a special guest because he’s half Italian. Winton Marsalis, Ornette Coleman, all the journalists, the musicians were in the audience. It should have been thrilling for me. But the main problem was that I was not there with my own band, or Enrico’s band, it was a big jam session. We decided the songs during the soundcheck. I felt it should have been a big occasion, a big chance to play my own thing, or to play with Enrico, but we couldn’t do that, we had to play a blues, some solos. So before the show I was in such a bad mood. My wife was telling me I was crazy, "you’re in New York, you’re playing at Town Hall and you don’t want to get out of your hotel room!"
So what about your next trip to New York? The next time we played many nights at the Blue Note with Enrico’s band. That was perfect. Now I come once a year. I’m happy to be going to Birdland, and after the concerts we're going to record a new record for ECM. Enrico, Larry Grenadier, Paul Motian, Mark Turner... It will probably be out in one year.
You met drummer Paul Motian for the first time when recording Rava's trio album Tati (ECM), in 2005. What was that like? Enrico and Paul were old friends so the atmosphere was really good in the studio. He’s an amazing musician. I think it’s really true he’s not a drummer, he’s a musician, this means he’s not only playing the drums, he’s always singing, following the music, listening to what’s happening, that’s incredible. It’s really a melodic instrument. Recording with him was really a big experience. I don’t know what will happen during the live show.
What other projects have been really exciting for you? I have a new record with my quintet, I Visionari. I was asked for the first time in my life to write and play a soundtrack for a movie, so I recorded music with the band, improvising and playing some written music, and everybody was very happy, the producer, the director... I also have a DVD with the music and movie together. But when I was about to mix the music, the producer called to say they changed their mind and wanted something more traditional. I know this happened once to Ornette Coleman, and once to Charles Mingus, so I feel a little bit better. But now I have this record, and I have to decide what to do with it, because I like the music even if it is not stuck to the movie.
If you could work with anyone, who would it be? I always said my dream was to play, even just one song, with Caetano Veloso, the singer I love most in the world. Then it happened that Caetano heard my Brazilian record, and I met him at a sound check, and he was very nice to me. He said he liked my record. And two days later I saw an interview in Italy where he was asked "why don’t you think about an entire recording with Italian songs?" And he said "I would love to do that but I don’t know so many Italian songs, but it would be great if I could do a duo with Stefano Bollani because he is a musician that I like." So now I’m chasing down Caetano Veloso. That’s my main goal of the year, to go into the studio with Caetano Veloso, that would be a dream come true.
Where was the article? In a major daily newspaper in Italy, La Nazione. Everybody was calling me. I was at the airport.
Congratulations on winning the European Jazz Prize. I was very happy, but I was really more and more happy when I saw the reason that the jury wrote down. They spoke about my humor and my way of being on stage, because of course jazz music especially in Europe is a serious thing, so in Italy I have a lot of people talking about me and saying "he’s a very good piano player but why is he doing silly things or telling jokes?" They think this does not help the jazz music. So I was very happy to see an international jury talking about that. I think everyone should do what they want. We have serious jazz musicians who I really love, and people that made the history of jazz, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, it’s no problem that they are funny, everyone should simply do what they want to.
Tickets are available to see the Enrico Rava/Stefano Bollani Quartet February 20 - 23, at Birdland. Saxophonist Mark Turner joins the group February 22 & 23.
